China and Europe share a lot in common on free trade and investment in the post-crisis world, as two-way economic exchanges are booming these years between the two key players, Hans-Jrg Schmidt-Trenz, CEO of Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"What we learned in last decades is that we live in a world of deep interdependence, and China has always seen as an emerging power, so we have to talk to each other, and learn a lot from each other," Schmidt-Trenz said. To promote such talks, Hamburg Chamber of Commerce initiated the "Hamburg summit: China meets Europe" in 2004, and gradually transformed it into a weighty platform for Chinese and European business and political leaders exchanging views on global economy.

China's former Deputy Premier Zeng Peiyan attended the first summit in 2004, while Premier Wen Jiabao participated in the event in 2006 and deputy Premier Zhang Dejiang in 2008.

The 4th edition of the biennial summit, known as Europe's largest Sino-European business confidence, ended on Nov 26 with keynote speeches given by Chinese State Councilor Ma Kai, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"We are extremely satisfied about the summit," Schmidt-Trenz said. "We got a lot of insights in the new dynamics of China through fruitful discussions. I'm sure there will be a lot of follow-ups after the meeting."

The CEO since 1996, also a professor for economics, noted that the biggest challenge in the times of crisis is protectionism. " If this comes in trade, then all will have problems."

"It is our convictions that the wealth of a nation is based on free trade, which enable every country to specialize itself for things they can do best," he said.

"China and Germany are biggest exporters, and sometimes we are criticized,"he added."We cannot understand them if the blames are only caused by our competitive economy."

"If others face problems, they must try to gain their competitiveness and fulfill their homework, rather than restrain us from development,"he said.

As an official working for tens of years in the forefront of Sino-European trading, Schmidt-Trenz found that doubled-sided economic cooperation is expanding quickly between China and Europe.

"There are more and more Chinese enterprises who want to invest in Europe,"he said."It is normal that some local companies are not happy with new arrivals, because they are afraid that the worker salaries and some other costs will go up."

"But in a broader sense, from the general interests of our economy, it is so clear that we cannot live on protectionism but on openness, therefore we invite everybody, from the United States to China, to invest in our city,"he said.

Although other German cities have issued policy for attracting Chinese capitals, Schmidt-Trenz said Hamburg, with a 300-year history of trading with China, is not anxious about these potential competitions.

"Every third container in our harbor is linked to China, while over 400 Chinese enterprises are located in this city. No other cities in Germany or even Europe have such deep relations as we have," Schmidt-Trenz said.

"We have a culture of being friends of your country (China). The city council and the chamber is prepared to welcome the Chinese businessmen and you will find very good climate,"he said. "I believe that Hamburg will always be a big part of the game."

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2010)